The Hardest Path to Promotion
But why is it the road most traveled?
I think back to past performance conversations I’ve had with managers throughout my career. The same pattern preceded these discussions: I’d been in a role for a little more than a year, and I wanted to make sure I was on a path to the next thing.
I remember these conversations distinctly. My hands would sweat as I pretended to listen to all the things my manager wanted to cover with me. My heart would beat so hard I’d wonder if anyone else could hear it. I’d wait until the very end to inquire if my performance was on track to get me promoted at the next formal review. This is usually when my manager would stumble a bit and say, “I believe so, but let’s make sure you are set up to do a few specific things before then.” Inevitably, I’d rush off and do everything they listed to whatever ability I was able.
Sometimes it worked, and promotion followed, but most of the times it did not, and I’d hear with answers like:
- “Your performance was stellar, but when calibrated against others, the projects you did just weren’t as important as some of the others that happened this year,” or
- “Even though you did your job well, you didn’t do enough outside of your job or anything extra,” or
- “There just isn’t business…
